


Letting Go

by PoorUnfortunateSoul



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Closure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 00:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15919650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoorUnfortunateSoul/pseuds/PoorUnfortunateSoul
Summary: “How much of it did you… witness?”“All of it. I got to watch him break your heart a little more everyday, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”_______________"Only know you love her when you let her goAnd you let her go."





	Letting Go

"Only know you've been high when you're feeling low  
Only hate the road when you're missing home  
Only know you love her when you let her go  
And you let her go."

\- Passenger 

<3----<3----<3

 

Shiro knew they’d have to talk eventually. Closure was something that was important to both of them in their relationship, since it was always something they’d been deprived of. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise to him when, at the the end of their movie night, Keith hangs back to talk to him.

 

“This whole time… it wasn’t you?” Keith asks quietly, getting straight to the point.

 

Shiro shakes his head.

 

“So, the not remembering we were in a relationship, not knowing some of the important stuff, it wasn’t because you didn’t care; it just wasn’t…”

  
He trails off when his voice gives, and he clears his throat to remove the thick feeling of tears building up. Shiro has to stop himself from moving forward, and holding him close. It isn’t his place anymore.

 

“Wasn’t me,” Shiro finishes for him. “No, I still remember the important stuff.”

 

Keith finally stops looking at the floor, and glances at his face for the first time since Allura brought him back.

 

“I know not to leave you alone when you’re panicking,” Shiro says, because Keith doesn’t look convinced. “I know sometimes you tell people to leave because you’ve convinced yourself that they’re going to anyways. I know the difference between your ‘I want someone to stay but not talk to me’ anger and your ‘I need to be alone right now so don’t push it’ anger. I know _you_ , Keith. Better than I know anyone else, probably.”

 

Keith nods slowly, and sniffs.

 

“So, what? How did those memories of us.” Keith pauses to clear his throat when his voice cracks on ‘us’. “How were those memories not transferred?”

 

Shiro sighs, and sits back down on the couch. Keith does as well, leaving a healthy space between them. It feels metaphoric.

 

“I really don’t know,” Shiro says, because he doesn’t. “I could tell that there was a lot of memories that weren’t there that I could remember, but were just blank spaces for him. It was like she gave him enough to imitate me, but not enough to _be_ me.”

 

Keith nods, processing everything. Shiro stays quiet; let’s him have that time, because it’s been a week since he’s been back and even he’s still disoriented about everything.

 

“How much of it did you… witness?”

 

“All of it. I got to watch him break your heart a little more everyday, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

 

Keith squeezes his eyes shut, and takes a deep, shaky breath. He clasps his hands together and clenches them together tight enough for the knuckles to turn white.

 

“I’m with Lance now,” Keith says, softly.

 

“I know.”

 

Keith slowly opens his eyes, and looks at Shiro with tears budding in the corners of them.

 

“It doesn’t feel fair. I thought I lost you because you quit caring, but you were taken away from me. And I still love you, but I also I love Lance. I don’t know what to do, or what’s fair to everyone.”

 

The tears start falling then, but neither of them acknowledge them. It’s Shiro’s turn to take a breath, and he hopes to God that the lie he’s build up plays off as truth.

 

“I let you go a long time ago, Keith,” he says, the words like poison coating his tongue. “I saw how happy Lance makes you, and I knew I had to.”

 

“He makes me as happy as you used to,” Keith says, so quiet that Shiro has to strain to hear him.

 

Shiro doesn’t know what to say to that, but Keith doesn’t demand an answer. He gets up from the couch, and presses a last kiss on Shiro’s forehead. Keith’s skin whispers a quiet ‘good-bye’ and Shiro tenses to keep the ‘don’t go’ from escaping his lips.

 

He has to remind himself that he’s not losing Keith forever. He made a relationship with the clone, got past the awkward phase and became friends again. Shiro knows he can do it, can force himself to soothe the ache it leaves in chest to say goodbye to one of the sweetest things he’s ever known; it doesn’t stop him from loathing the fact that he has to.

 

Keith excuses himself from the room, now with the gaping wound that the clone left him with the ability to heal. Shiro knows that he said what he said to let his loved one heal, but lying sits like a rock in his stomach.

  
But then he thinks of Lance, and how happy they truly are together. If Shiro can’t be the one for Keith, Lance would certainly be his first pick.

 

So he sinks back into the couch, and tries to start the processing of letting Keith go.


End file.
